Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 - Player Comments about CGX Abu Dhabi GC 2015 A

A gorgeous course, designed by the CGX team, not too difficult but with nice plantings, plenty of sand, some wide lakes, a few undulating fairways and smooth greens.
The first thing that you will notice on this par 72 is the red color (similar to the logo of the HSBC sponsor) seen everywhere (pyramid-shaped tee markers and bigger ones floating in the middle of the lakes, camera towers wrapped in red, and those signs, on both sides of the tee boxes on every hole - no photography, switch off all camera phones) !
The first two holes are right doglegs, with the opening hole having an elongated lake on the right, and the par-5 2nd, needing a tee shot over plenty of sand, with a wide fairway and a big elongated lake, a little bit behind on the right of the green.
The left dogleg par-4 3rd hole is nice, with a winding lake on the right in the corner midway and plenty of bunkers, mostly on the left of the palm tree-lined fairway, and is followed by the par-3 4th, with a nice cart path crossing the fairway diagonally and bunkers all around the green, with a big lake on the right.
Then, after the left dogleg par-4 5th hole, with a tee shot over part of a lake and an uphill approach shot to the elevated green, and the par-4 6th, with an elongated lake midway through going around behind the green, you will reach the pretty par-3 7th hole, with sand and trees in front of the tee box, on the right, and a tee shot over a small winding lake with two big bunkers, in front of the green (near the edge of the lake) and to the left !
The left dogleg par-5 8th hole is quite nice too, with sand and plenty of trees all along the left side of the undulating fairway, but my favorite hole is the right dogleg par-4 9th, with a fairway between two elongated lakes, with sand and palm trees near the edges in the middle on both sides, and a green surrounded by a couple of bunkers, and a beautiful building (clubhouse ?), with glass windows, nice flowerbeds in front below (with the course initials), and with a gorgeous roof in a shape of a falcon with its wings deployed !
On the back 9, I like the nice par-5 10th hole, with bunkers, left and right, a little bit apart and a long second shot to reach the slightly-elevated green (with a big bunker in front, hidden by trees on the right), the right dogleg par-4 11th, with plenty of sand and palm trees on the right and bunkers a little bit further in the corner, and the straight but scenic par-3 12th hole, with a tee shot over a small lake and a wide green, surrounded halfway by small palm trees on top of a beautiful stone wall (looking so good that it looks more like a real picture !).
After a couple of par-4 left doglegs (13th and 14th holes), with a narrow fairway and an elevated green on the first, and a downhill tee shot and an elongated lake in the right corner on the latter, I like the scenic left dogleg par-4 16th hole, with a big lake in the right corner (with a small wooded island in the middle) and an uphill shot to the elevated green.
The last two holes are pretty and tough : the par-4 17th is a right dogleg, with a tee shot over sand and the lake, seen on the previous hole, and the par-5 18th hole, another right dogleg (and one of my favorites), requires a tee shot over the sand along the elongated lake on the right, and another shot around tall palm trees on the right to get close to the green, guarded by a couple of big bunkers on both sides, in front of the grandstands and that gorgeous clubhouse (?) behind !
Needless to say, this Abu Dhabi GC 2015 is visually superb, helped by that little wall on the 12th hole, and that clubhouse with its very original falcon-shaped roof, and quite challenging too, with all those beautiful lakes to watch for. So, hurry to download this latest CGX release, but don't forget to turn off your cameras and telephones before teeing off !